4 in prostitution racket externed

A gang of four, allegedly involved in a prostitution racket, were externed from the city limits last week.

Deputy commissioner of police (zone 9) Pratap Dighavkar said the decision to invoke the otherwise rarely used section 55 of the Bombay Police Act (BPA) – disperal of gangs and body of persons – was made against the gang of four with a view "to send a strong message to those involved in such activities."

“Normally, even after arrest, such procurers come out on bail and get back to business quickly. We want to send out a strong message that such activities will not be tolerated.”

The four externed from the Khar area have been identified as Raju Yadav, 32, Sukhdev Yadav, 24, Ballekhar Yadav, 49, and Ramdev Yadav, 32. According to Dighavkar, the foursome had been booked under the Prevention of Immoral Trafficking Act (PITA) cases earlier as well. “The gang that hails from Jharkhand has been busted twice. When our officers found that they were operating in the area again, we decided to extern them from city limits,” Dighavkar said.

Explaining why and how the police decided to go ahead with externment proceedings in such cases, Dighavkar said, “In case we find those booked under PITA cases are being arrested again for similar crimes, we will be externing them.” He added that they decided to invoke the infrequently used section as those being booked for PITA turned out to be repeat offenders.

“In addition to this case, we have also initiated proceedings against two groups of procurers operating in the western suburbs, who will soon be externed,” added the deputy commissioner.